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Today in the United States, one of the biggest concerns of both the population and the government is terrorism. Now, I'm just kind of thinking about why this is. Obviously, the main reason is 9/11. That's understandable, considering that the attack came as a shock to most of us in a country where foreign terrorism just isn't something we experience.
The reason why I'm questioning terrorism's place in our national agenda is the statistics of the whole thing. In the last decade, how many people have been killed by foreign terrorists on U.S. soil in the last decade?
3,000 on 9/11.
Now, consider these numbers of people killed annualy due to other causes:
Tobacco 430,700
Alcohol 110,640
Prescription Drugs 32,000
Suicide 30,622
Homicide 20,308
Licit & Illicit Drugs 21,683
Illicit Drugs 17,000
Anti-Inflammatory Drugs 7,600
Now, call me crazy, but it seems to me that we have some WAY more serious problems in the United States than just terrorism. In fact, the numbers make it sound kind of like terrorism should be one of our smaller worries. So, then, why all the fuss over terrorism? Why is it the biggest thing on the national agenda?
The obvious answer is that it's a knee-jerk reaction. Those 3,000 people were killed all at once, as the entire world basically watched it happen. It was terrifying. It made us angry. We wanted something done. However, we don't see these people dying because of tobacco, alcohol, etcetera all at once on international television. They die one at a time outside the spotlight.
Of course, the predicted numbers due to terrorism might be high, but at the same time, they're predictions. We KNOW that this many people die due to these other problems, and yet we're rallying arround anti-terrorism procedurs that are inflicting serious damage on our civil liberties.
Why is that?
By the way, don't forget that The Pentagon thinks that millions of people will die very soon due to global warming and severe climate change.
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